


Too Late

by Katybug1992



Category: Men's Hockey RPF
Genre: 2020 NHL All-Star Game, F/M, Female Mitch Marner, Light Angst, One-Sided Attraction, Women in the NHL, female robert thomas
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-15
Updated: 2020-05-15
Packaged: 2021-03-02 22:34:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,385
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24204478
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Katybug1992/pseuds/Katybug1992
Summary: It took Auston a while to realize just why the mere mention of Connor McDavid rubbed him the wrong way. Until he saw Mitchie run into his arms after their first game against Edmonton, watched as she smiled brighter than he had seen in the few weeks he’d known her, watched as her eyes glowed brighter as she laughed when he spun her around easily.
Relationships: Mitch Marner/Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner/Connor McDavid, Robert Thomas/Matthew Tkachuk
Comments: 1
Kudos: 43





	Too Late

It took Auston a while to realize just why the mere mention of Connor McDavid rubbed him the wrong way. Until he saw Mitchie run into his arms after their first game against Edmonton, watched as she smiled brighter than he had seen in the few weeks he’d known her, watched as her eyes glowed brighter as she laughed when he spun her around easily. Until he stopped by her room when they got to the hotel to see her getting ready to leave in a dress that left zero doubt that Mitchie hid her very female body under intentionally baggy clothes, saw her shoving heels on and applying lipstick to complete her make-up look, saw that her hair was actually styled….all for a dinner with Connor McDavid.

And he didn’t sulk until she got back, no matter what Patty said. He didn’t feel irrational jealousy about how much she clearly adored McDavid. It was different from the way she adored Strome or Chucky or any of the other guys she’s known since Juniors. She was different when it came to Connor. And Auston didn’t deserve to feel like this because she wasn’t his. He never made a push to make her his. She was single. And he would love to put himself out of his misery and take her off the market but he couldn’t bring himself to do it.

It’s getting sad. Willy and Zach don’t even humor him anymore, Kappy literally walked away from him the last time he said her name in the Finn’s presence, that’s how much he has sulked over Michelle Marner. Freddie did, however, pretend to listen to his McDavid Rant. Because if Mitchie was dating him, then it wasn’t cool for her to keep it from him - he was her best friend on the team and she could talk to him about these things and he would try really hard not to lose it until he was in the privacy of his own apartment.

He remembered Eichs telling him that if he wanted Mitchie, he needed to make a move, remembered Chucky telling him that numerous time. Because eventually Connor was going to open his eyes and actually see that Mitchie was a girl and see that she was a perfect for him. And that was the day that Auston would be screwed.

Flash forward four years, and he still hadn’t made his move. And he didn’t expect to be in a bar in St. Louis when he realized he was too late. They had just finished Media and a bunch of them were in a bar close to the hotel. He, Mitchie, and Freddie were talking to Jack and Chucky when Mitchie had slipped away. Auston had thought she was just going up to flirt herself another drink, but a quick glance showed her standing at one of the tall tables with Connor, who must have just walked in. And she has a look on her face that Auston’s never seen anyone other than himself on the receiving end of. And he knows.

Chucky elbows Jack and gestures toward the table, “Looks like Mitchie’s not going back to her room tonight.”

“Fucking finally.” Jack muttered, taking a swig of his beer, “You know how long they’ve been dancing around each other? It’s disgusting.”

“She wouldn’t…” Auston tried to rationalize why, exactly, Mitchie wouldn’t leave with Connor - wouldn’t sleep with Connor - during All-Star Weekend.

“Dude, I told you years ago to make your move.” Jack rolled his eyes, nodding over to where Mitchie was laughing as Connor grinned widely.

“She’s laying it on thick.” Chucky laughed as Mitch flipped her hair. Seeing Auston wince, he said, “Sorry, bro.”

“Matty,” Freddie places a hand on his arm, “you okay?”

“It’s not like I haven’t seen her pick up before.” Auston responds.

“But none of those guys were ‘Davo’.” Freddie is kind enough to remind Auston of The Problem.

“If she leaves with him...I’ve lost my chance.”

“You lost your chance already.” Chucky tells him, “Look, I love you, Matty, I do. But you not making any moves to act on your very obvious feelings for her… for THREE YEARS… she’s done. She’s not waiting for you anymore.”

“She told you this?”

“Me and Dvo... group chat is still going strong. And she’s been at the end of her emotional rope over you for a year now. And now she’s saving herself from that pain.”

“Chucky -”

“No one on your team was going to tell her to let you go. No one. They all told her to just wait you out. There’s only so much waiting she can do when she has to watch you pick up whenever you go out.”

“Look,” Jack points at Auston, “she was always going to marry a Superstar. It’s a fact like the sky is blue. And I’ve always had my money on Davo. Part of why I resented him so much, for a long time. Because she’s one in a million. And Davo always had her...until you. You were the only person in the world who could have taken her from Connor.”

Matthew is distracted from comment as Brady practically bounces back over to them with Robbi Thomas in tow.

“Guess who gets to stay at the hotel with you this whole weekend!” she grins and Matthew lets out a “whoop!” because he had been working on convincing his dad since he got the nod. There were times that it definitely seemed like Big Walt was stricter when it came to Robbi than he was when it came to Taryn - because Robbi was young and already showing so much potential. She was a rising star and Walt wasn’t going to let Matthew do anything to fuck it up - like he would do anything to fuck up his four year long relationship or Robbi’s future.

“Yeah, so that we can BOTH spend time with her.” Brady tagged on, staring down his older brother. He may not have the boyfriend title, but he had the best friend title, “Dad said it was okay only if she slept in my room.”

“Good thing we have connecting rooms then,” Matthew replied, nuzzling Robbi’s jaw, “just think of my room as an extension of your room.”

Brady rolled his eyes, “I’m not covering for you if dad finds out.”

Auston zones out the Tkachuk boys’ bickering, well used to it by now, and focuses his attention back on Mitchie. He makes eye contact with Connor, whose gaze is hard. He says something to Mitchie and Auston watches as she looks over at him briefly, eyes giving nothing away, before she turns back to Connor and kisses him.

She pulls away and heads back to the table she started at, with their friends, and Auston is filled with hope that she’s not leaving with Connor, that she looked at him and remembered what she was really waiting for, but his hopes are dashed when she grabs her coat.

“I’m heading back to the hotel,” she tells them, “I’ll see you all tomorrow.”

“Mitchie, wait -”

“I’m done waiting, Auston.”

She gives him a sad look before walking back to Connor, taking his outstretched hand and giggling when he brings it to his lips and kisses her knuckles.

“Finally.” Robbi muttered, looking around briefly before stealing Matthew’s beer after carefully glancing around.

“What do you mean? ‘Finally’?” Chucky asked, looking surprised. To his knowledge, Robbi and Mitchie hadn’t engaged in much “girl talk” while on the Knights and really only talked about hockey. Granted, Robbi’s relationship was clear as day and she had other people - people who weren’t friends with or related to himself - that she could talk to when things got a little bumpy.

“Matty, I shared a hotel room with her whenever Dvo and I couldn’t switch rooms,” Robbi rolled her eyes. She and Mitchie were the only two girls on the Knights for Mitchie’s last year and Robbi’s first. When Robbi and Matthew got together, they would occasionally roommate swap so Robbi and Matthew could spend time together and Dvo and Mitchie could unload their Captain burdens from each other, “Anyway, I always knew she would end up with either McDavid or Strome. And, no offense Matthews, McDavid is a perfect fit for her. It just took him some time before he realized he was a perfect fit for her.”

“When did you become Little Miss Gossip?” Brady teases, nudging her gently.

“Ugh!” Robbi sighs, “It’s hard to avoid when Pear is all up in everyone’s business and when Jaden clearly knows everything about everyone but won’t share!”

“Poor baby.” Matthew replies and it’s clearly meant to be sarcastic and mocking but he’s never been able to fully pull off that tone with Robbi. 

Robbi cuts herself off from responding as her eyes light up, “Andy’s here!”

“Who’s Andy?” Matthew shoots every male who could possibly be named Andy a glare as he scans the bar.

“He’s the bartender who has a crush on her.” Binner popped in, throwing an arm around Robbi, “And O’Ry put me in charge of making sure you don’t go over and say hi. Apparently Big Walt texted Pear to keep an eye on you.”

Robbi looks offended for a full minute before looking around for O’Ry and Pear, spotting them and heading over immediately (most likely to try to convince them that she was old enough to make her own bad decisions and then - when that failed - to threaten to call Schwartzy).

“Nice to see you guys.” Binner nods and follows her, making sure she doesn’t stop by to say hi to Andy - the whole team is weary of him and while Robbi could handle herself just fine, she was kind of small (not as small as Jaden, but almost no one was as small as Jaden - who had reduced a man who tried to get handsy with her to tears in the middle of Chicago bar when they had last been in the city so they didn’t tend to worry as much about her) and Andy could do some damage if given the chance.

“Knew it was too good to be true.” Chucky the Older pouted after Robbi.

“I didn’t think dad would get a babysitter….” Brady trails off, spotting Perry definitely laughing at them, “Not like the whole city didn’t see her drinking during the parade.”

“She apparently has a bartender buddy, too.” Jack responds, eyes filled with amusement as Matthew glares at the bar.

“Which one do you think Andy is?” he mutters, mostly to his brother.

“Probably the one staring right at her.” Brady narrowed his eyes at the brunette at the end of the bar.

“Maybe I should go hi,” Matthew grinned, “Mom is always saying that I need to get better at making friends.”

“And Robbi would kill you if you ruin the only bartender in town who’s willing to ignore her age.” Brady replied, giving him a look.

“I’m sure he’s not the only one.” Matthew rolled his eyes before scanning the bar, “Is Petro here?”

“Don’t get her Captain involved in your petty and unnecessary jealousy. You’re the only person she’s ever liked. Don’t be smug. She has terrible taste.”

And Auston couldn’t take much more of this. Freddie clearly picked up on that and nodded toward the door. They said their goodnight and then started to drink all the alcohol in the minifridge in Auston’s room.

“I thought I had more time.” Auston lamented.

“She did wait three years.” Freddie replied, doing Auston the solid of not rolling his eyes.

“But...she could have -”

“Matty, she couldn’t have made the first move.” Freddie immediately cut him off, “She’s a woman in the NHL. Making the first move, opening herself up like that, that could cost her her career. She needed you to make that move.”

“But she made that move with McDavid.”

“Well, McDavid isn’t her teammate. And, from the sound of it, they’ve both been making that move toward each other since the Draft, maybe before the Draft.” 

Auston grumbled and pouted and eventually passed out.

He woke up the next morning not as hungover as he was expecting to find that Freddie was either already up or had gone back to room sometime while Auston was sleeping.

“Brunch!” Freddie declared opening the door to the room and grinning as Auston groaned, “Come on, we’re meeting Mitchie. Take a shower and get dressed.”

“McDavid not coming?” Auston mumbled, pouting even as he got up and grabbed clean clothes.

“I didn’t ask.” Freddie responded, “But Tkachuk the Older told Mitchie about a brunch place and we both know how Mitchie feels about brunch. She said she would meet us there.”

Auston groans but heads into the bathroom to shower.

They walk into Half and Half and see Mitch and Connor at a table tucked into the back corner. Mitchie’s not wearing anything special, just skinny jeans and her Leafs’ hoodie that does nothing to hide the hickies on her neck. Her long hair is in a braid that’s hanging over her right shoulder and an Oiler beanie shoved over her head. And she’s leaning against Connor as they both look over the menu.

“I don’t care that I’m drinking hot chocolate, they have s’mores french toast!” Mitchie is arguing playfully with Connor when they sit down, “And don’t act like you won’t be stealing any of it.”

“You know the rule: If I didn’t order it, I don’t have to feel guilty eating it.” Connor grins back at her, kissing her temple before turning his gaze to Auston and Freddie, “Hey. You guys have a good night?”

“It was okay.” Freddie replied, elbowing Auston sharply to get the younger man to stop staring at the rather large hickie on Mitchie’s neck, “We actually ended up leaving shortly after you did. Tkachuk’s girl showed up and then no one else existed.”

“Chucky’s always been that way with Robbi.” Mitchie grinned, “They’ve been THAT couple since before they were even a couple. I have no idea how they play against each other. The only reason Matthew hasn’t proposed yet is because his dad would kill him for doing that too early in Robbi’s career. Right now, that house revolves around her.”

The waitress comes by to take their order and Mitchie grins happily as she orders her surgery breakfast. She picks up her hot chocolate and takes a sip while giving Connor a playful look, eyes sparkling as he laughs.

“You’re a nightmare.” Connor laughed, expression completely open with genuine love and affection, voice warm, and looking for all the world like no one else but Mitchie exists.

“You love me.” Mitchie smirked back, placing her hand gently on his cheek. Her smirk softened to a soft smile as Connor leaned against her hand.

“I really do.” he murmured, the words meant only for her and she seemed to melt at them.

“Yeah?” and Auston had never heard her sound unsure of anything, much less unsure about her place in someone’s life and he knew that that was entirely his fault.

“Yeah,” Connor breathed out, nodding and brushing his lips against hers before stealing her hot chocolate and taking a sip, getting a laugh out of her and breaking the almost sad mood that had descended around her. Turning his attention back to Freddie and Auston, he asked, “You guys excited for tonight?”

“Yeah,” Freddie nodded, “I think it’s gonna be a lot of fun.”

“It’ll be fun.” Auston replied.

“Have you seen the platform you’re going to be shooting off of yet?” Connor looked over at Mitchie who nodded.

“Yeah. They took us over yesterday, before media, let us take a couple practice shots. Chucky has something up his sleeve but he wouldn’t tell us anything about it. I could probably only tell because I know his tells, but still. Should be interesting.”

“You’ll do great.” Connor grinned at her.

Before they could say anything else, their food arrived and Connor was laughing at Mitchie’s disaster of a breakfast.

“It’s perfect.” Mitchie grinned widely before immediately digging in and mocking Connor’s boring “healthy” pancakes.

And she looked so...happy. Happier than Auston had really seen her look in a while. She was so good at always looking happy that seeing it so pure and genuine was breathtaking. And not being the one who caused it was heartbreaking.

So he suffered through the meal. Suffered through watching Connor steal little bites of her food. Suffered through Connor pretending to not see her stealing some of the fruit from his plate. Suffered through watching her look at Connor the way she had looked at him, the way she had been looking at him less and less as time had gone on, a way he only realized now - in this moment - that she hadn’t looked at him like for almost a year. Suffered through fully settling into the fact that the girl of his dreams was also the girl of Connor McDavid’s dreams - but Connor had been the one with the guts to do something about it. Suffered through getting used to the fact that he was too late and had lost his chance with Mitchie...probably forever.

Mitchie skipped ahead of them, tugging Freddie with her - the goalie indulging her as he often did. Auston wrapped his coat tighter around himself, swearing that eventually he would be able to say no to Michelle Marner - who insisted that the hotel wasn’t that far from the restaurant and that they could walk it just fine.

“I didn’t steal her from you.” Connor’s voice was low, so that Mitchie couldn’t hear him.

“I know you didn’t.” Auston replied, looking at his shoes.

“I just wanted to be clear.”

“I just… she’s my best friend and we’ve always told each other everything. I know about you and I know that she was waiting for you for a long time. But she deserves to care about her own happiness. Because she had only ever focused on other’s happiness.”

“I know. I want her to be happy. She’s still my favorite person. It’s gonna take adjustment. I wouldn’t do anything to hurt her…. Well, hurt her more than I already have.”

“Glad we’re cool.”

And Auston was, too. It had taken a long time for them to get there - the media setting them up against each other, Mitchie being their favorite person and neither really being keen to share her attention, didn’t help- but neither were eager to go back to the way things had been between them. 

“Davo! Matty!” Mitchie called impatiently, “Hurry up!”

“What’s your hurry?” Auston laughed as he and Connor both picked up their pace to catch up.

“The Chuckies brough NERF guns and Robbi and I are going to kick their asses!”

Connor laughed affectionately and tucked her under his arm and kissing her temple. And Auston sees her light up at the affection and his chest tightens just a bit.

“You okay?” Freddie asks him, letting them fall just enough behind that Mitchie wouldn’t yell at them to hurry up.

“I will be.” Auston replied honestly, “She’s happy. That’s all I want for her.”

Freddie gave a little smile in response and nodded, “I think you and Mitchie need to talk.”

“I know.” Auston replied, “And she’ll make sure we talk soon. But right now… I mean, look at her. She hasn’t looked that happy in a while.”

“With age comes maturity.” Freddie chirped before making them speed up as Mitchie looked over her shoulder.

“What are you two whispering about?” she demanded, smile on her face but eyes tinted with worry.

“Freddie thinks the Chuckies are going to wipe the floor with you and Thomas.” Auston replied with a grin, only kind of sorry for throwing Freddie under the bus.

“Please,” Mitchie scoffed, “they’re both so soft on Robbi, they don’t stand a chance!”

Connor caught her as she tripped - because graceful off-ice Michelle Marner was not - and she kissed his cheek in thanks and Auston finds himself smiling a little.

Because, regardless of how he felt, at the end of the day all he wanted was for Mitchie to be happy. And Connor could provide that. And that was enough.


End file.
